Some Essential Hardware (Even Away From the Street)

Friday

Nov 30, 2007 at 5:22 AM

On the road for business or commuting from the suburbs, games, gadgets and high-tech devices have caught the attention of businesspeople.

For almost every lawyer, accountant, Wall Street executive or deal maker, the briefcase and the BlackBerry can be a lifeline to the office, particularly for those on the road for business or commuting from the suburbs. Executives these days can’t go anywhere without the cellphone or the BlackBerry, but there are other gadgets and high-tech devices that are also catching on — some for work, but many for relaxation.

The editors of DealBook, the New York Times blog that covers mergers and acquisitions, have come up with a list of tools and toys for that have caught the attention of businesspeople.

On the Road and Keeping Up With Hometown TV

Many executives have come to rely on the Slingbox to let them catch their local news, sports and programs while traveling on business. The Slingbox, which attaches to the television at home, captures a local TV signal, digitizes it and sends it via the Internet to your hotel room. Now that most hotels offer good Internet service, it’s simple for a traveler to tune into the local news or shows.

Boxes start at $110 and rise in price with more options for connecting to your video sources. The newest version runs on laptops, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS devices, making it possible to watch your home television almost anywhere. This software may cost more depending upon your phone and the cost of delivering the data.

Joe Brancatelli, the editor of JoeSentMe.com, a Web site devoted to business travel, said that he thought the first generation of the product was cute, but the newest one seems irresistible.

“I’ve got to be in Rome for a month in January,” Mr. Brancatelli said. “The presidential race will be decided then. Yeah, they have CNN but not the same CNN we have here. I’ll be able to fire up the Slingbox and see all of the primaries.”

With Maps and Directions Added, Smartphones Indeed

For executives needing to be out of the office for long periods, few things have been more useful than the mobile access that hand-held devices with e-mail access have provided. Personal digital assistants like the BlackBerry have changed the way executives do business, while allowing time to hone their skills at playing BrickBreaker. The top-of-the-line smartphones are now adding G.P.S.-driven navigation, which is handy for executives in search of their next meeting. Some models from the BlackBerry 8800 series have added G.P.S. receivers that will show a location on a map and provide turn-by-turn directions to users.

While users praise the gadget’s ability to play music and video on the 2.5-inch, 320-by-240 pixel screen, some users wonder why there is no camera. Sprint sells the Blackberry 8830, the latest model, for $200 after rebate, with a two-year agreement. A word of caution if you have a company-provided phone. The BlackBerry Web site promises bosses “access to a wide range of other location-based services (L.B.S.) like employee and resource tracking.”

Not for Informants Only: A Way to Wear Wires

The disadvantage of making a gadget pocket-size is that it just takes up another pocket. The designers at Scottevest have made jackets and vests with additional pockets for gadgets and passageways for wires. An average person’s clothing might have pockets, but the Scottevest garments come with a so-called personal area network that lets you hide the wires.

The company has announced 19 products including the Tactical System 4.0, a combination of an outer shell and an inner fleece that promises 52 pockets, some with dual access.

The company said that the fabrics and designs that it uses allow the jacket to hold its shape while distributing the weight more evenly. Magnets hold some pockets shut, a feature that leads Scott to warn pacemaker owners not to wear the jacket. The Tactical System 4.0 lists for $300.

Hot New Hit on iPod: Every Step You Take

One truism from business school is that you can manage only what you can measure. So it should not be surprising that managers carry that thought into their training regimen.

Nike and Apple make a special digital pedometer that tracks a runner’s footfalls and sends the data to an iPod that stores it for uploading when the user returns home. A runner can keep track of pace and distance over the years. The kit costs $29 if you have the iPod. The transmitter in the shoe adds 0.23 ounce to one foot while the receiver adds 0.12 ounce to the iPod. It interacts with iTunes version 6.0.5 or later.

Lisa Hufnagel, an auditor who travels extensively around New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, says she uses her iPod to track her distance and time while away from home. When she returns, Ms. Hufnagel posts her progress on Runnerplus.com, a social networking site for runners.

Phones Know the Time. This Watch Knows Longitude and Latitude.

Some executives stopped wearing watches when they realized their hand-held devices told the time. The watch maker Suunto, a subsidiary of the Amer Sports Corporation in Helsinki, fought back by adding features and has made its way back onto the wrists of many executives.

Today, the Suunto line includes features that let business travelers monitor their appointments and their location while working and their speed and heart rate when exercising. The data is logged and downloadable.

Jeff Conrad, a leadership trainer from Canton, Ga., collects Suunto watches and writes about them for Watchuseek, an online forum devoted to watches. The T3 (about $170), one of five Suuntos in his collection, comes with a G.P.S. pod that he has attached to his bike. This transmits the location data to his watch, which records it so he can study his path later. His pulse is recorded by a chest strap that tracks the heartbeat and sends data to the watch. The watch can also estimate what Suunto calls the training effect, a number from 1 to 5 calculated by monitoring the heartbeat.

The Suunto X9i (about $500) has a G.P.S. tool for tracking movements and comparing them against data gathered from National Geographic and Google Earth.

When Office Hours Are Over and It Comes Time to Play, Three Game Systems Can Offer a Variety of Video Escapes

O.K., you have to do something to unwind after work.

There are three relatively new game consoles on the market, and they appeal to different audiences.

Businesspeople who love simpler games with more physical play are fond of the Nintendo Wii with its motion-sensing controller that lets you play games like tennis. Some call it the console for nongamers because of its simplicity. The Wii often sells for about $250.

Those who have spent the day trading carbon credits have another opportunity to save the planet, this time from aliens in Halo 3, the third edition of the Xbox 360 game. The PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 5, a hyper-realistic, high-speed journey, is one of the best sellers for that Sony console, which starts at $299. Microsoft’s Xbox starts at $280. Both are built around the multicore Cell processor, which allows numerous tasks to be done simultaneously.

Dan Strack, a trader for a Wall Street bank, has three Xbox 360s and uses them for more than Halo 3, which he nonetheless calls the “latest and greatest game that people are walking on water over.”

His Xbox 360 will also log into his home computer and grab photos or movies, a feature he uses when “Grandma and Grandpa come over and are hanging around the living room.”

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